Buddhist and Catholic Monks Talk about Celibacy

Abstract

electronic sign at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport was flashing Orange Alert as dozen Buddhist monks arrived in their burnt orange robes from around the country for three days of dialogue on celibacy with similar number of Catholic monastics come together from various monasteries at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. As he opened the October 26-29, 2006, meeting, Rev. William Skudlarek, executive director of Monastic Interreligious Dialogue (MID), said, You (Buddhists) have been at this for some five-to-seven hundred years longer than we have. We have something to learn. This was the second Monks in the West interreligious dialogue. first took place in 2004 at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in northern California. On the Catholic side, the participants came from the Benedictine, Cistercian, and Camaldolese monasteries. On the Buddhist side, they came from the Theravada, Mahayana, and Tibetan traditions. Through the event, participants began the day with an hour of quiet sitting in meditation and joined the monastic community at St. John's for their rhythm of daily prayer. first session dealt with theory, the why of celibacy. Buddhist participants explained that their teachings focus on seeing how suffering is created and cured. Attachments give rise to suffering, so advancement in the spiritual life requires letting go of one's attachments. Attachment to desires, among which are sexual desires, is hindrance to spiritual progress. Raging desire takes away choice, freedom, said Rev. Kusala Bhikshu, Buddhist chaplain at UCLA, in his opening presentation. The senses must be controlled in order to be free. Brother Gregory Perron from St. Procopius monastery in Indiana spoke of how monastic life demands profound understanding and acceptance of solitude. Celibacy is tool, offered Perron, a skillful means like intentional simplicity of life, by which our heart is burrowed out and the core of our being laid bare. By embracing it, the monk accepts the aloneness that characterizes every human being. In response to Buddhist reflections on the illusory nature of the body, Catholic participants pointed out Christianity's remarkably positive evaluation of the